in george w. bush's the lower number was 136, doubt the amount. the -- double the amount. and the 80th congress, the do-nothing congress, passed 390. we are joined by jason johnson, a professor of political science. how do you explain so few bills getting through? >> you have large numbers of members of congress who thing it's their job to stop the administration passing bills, rather than coming up with policy to pass. that's the root of it. for many observers, we operated under the assumption that the 2012 election would break the fever, that members of the republican party say president obama gets re-elected, we should pass laws. in many ways members of congress become more entrenched. that's why we are here. >> there has been idea logs in congress. shelby. he says: >> what is wrong with the ideological view that the role of congress is to keep the administration from creating new laws because it gets in the way of men people. >> we have multiple laws, high levels of unemployment, student loan rates that are out of control. there's absolutely no excuse for congress to b